James Mabbe

was born of gentile Parents in the County of Surrey and Dioc. of Winchester, began to be conversant with the Muses in Magd. Coll. in Lent term, an. 1586/7 aged 16 years, made Demie of that house in 87, perpetual Fellow in 95, Mast. of Arts in 98, one of the Proctors of the University in 1606, and three years after supplicated the ven. congreg. of Regents, that whereas he had studied the Civil Law for six years together, he might have the favour to be admitted to the degree of Bach. of that faculty; but whether he was really admitted, it appears not. At length he was taken into the service of Sir Joh. Digby Knight, (afterwards Earl of Bristow) and was by him made his Secretary when he went Embassadour into Spaine: where remaining with him several years, improved himself in various sorts of Learning, and in the Customs and Manners of that and other Countries: After his return into England, he was made one of the Lay-prebendaries of the Cath. Ch. of Wells, being then in orders, was esteemed a learned man, good Orator, and a facetious conceited Wit. He hath translated from Spanish into English, under the name of Don Diego Puede-Ser that is James may be (1) The Spanish bawd, represented in Celestina: or, the tragick comedy of Calisto and Melibea, &c. Lond. 1631. fol. (2) The Rogue: or, the life of Guzman de Alfarache. Lond. 1634. fol. 3d edit. Written in Span. by Matth. Aleman (3) Devout contemplations expressd in 42 Sermons upon all the Quadragesimal Gospels. Lond. 1629. fol. Originally written by Fr. Ch. de Fonseca (4) The Exemplarie Novels of Mich. de Cervantes Saavedra in six books. Lond. 1640. fol. There was another book of the said Cervantes entit. Delight in several Shapes, &c. in six pleasant Histories. Lond. 1654. fol. but who translated that into English I cannot tell, nor the name of him who translated his Second part of the History of Don Quixot Lond. 1620. qu. As for our Translator Mabbe, Clar. 1642. he was living in sixteen hundred forty and two at Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire in the family of Sir John Strangewaies, and dying about that time, was buried in the Church belonging to that place, as I have been informed by one of that name and family, lately fellow of Wadham College in Oxon.